A Open Letter to Maxin Frith of The Independent: -
Hi, Maxine,
Interesting article concerning the Faliraki syndrome destined for the UK, much of it spot-on, but the whole missing the mark by some yardage, I feel……and the fact that we already have a Faliraki drink culture isn’t really an OK reason for opposing change. Yes, we do suffer from ‘binge-drinking’ (although I always thought that to ‘go on a binge’ was to gluttonously but infrequently over-indulge in what is seen as an everyday event of one form or another; many of those accused of this convenient media-strapline do it for three and often four nights per week; hardly a ‘binge’ more a ‘habit’, I’d say). Your description of a couple of instances (the ‘village pub’ requesting lengthened hours to complete the music nights they hold and the actions of ‘sharp-suited young men’ downing pints and chasers as the London pub threatens to close) does in fact go a long way to pinpointing where several of the problems but not their solutions lie.
The fact that young men (sharp-suited or not) and women clamour at the bar for an extra pint in addition to the one they’re drinking (and the ones they’ve possibly already consumed) and a “chaser” shouldn’t beg the reason/excuse that they’re doing it because the licensing laws in this country are so moronic (they are, I agree) this is the only way they have to consume their alcohol, but should the beg the question, “why?” Why do they have the need to down at the very least two pints and a chaser in 7-to-10 minutes? (I guess we should also ask how they’re getting home, but that’s a pointless exercise as I know we’ll be told by all, sharp-suited or on their uppers, that they’re all going to catch a bus or call a taxi, 'onest, guv'). It would, maybe, be better to analyze this (.....hm, good title for a film that; now let me see if I can sort out a story for it……) event and the modern mores and background that lead to this form of expression of self. No, I’m not going to write a diatribe about “modern youth, celebrity role models, too much money, too much time and in some cases too little intellect” etc… but you and I both know that these are just some of the underlying currents that drive these ships in bottles.
The information on your local village pub is also quite revealing. There are very few instances of large scale, drink-fuelled violence and depravity taking place in villages. That’s because there’s a level of ‘everyone being known by someone’ and a certain level of self-preservation through “community”, for want of a better word, which still permeates many of these rural areas. The increase in Saturday closing in your village pub won’t lead to alcohol-fuelled violence 24/7; that’s not what the concern is about. The concern is about inner-city and large suburban areas (where anonymity is certain, cameras or no cameras and the natural progression from this extended drinking time will be to force through the legislation concerning I.D. Cards...........I'm not paranoid, just ask that bloke who keeps following me) upping their opening times, with the alcohol manufacturer’s backing and 'competitive drive at all costs' regime, resulting in the exacerbation an already unpleasant situation.
We know this to be a fact as a visit to any week-end night in any large city will confirm; your Newcastle-upon-Tyne story well illustrates this. There is no need for any more research, by 'Mintel' or any other focus group analyst; for “research” just insert “decision delaying tactic”. In probably 7 cases out of 10 the drinks industry pays for the ‘expert research’ and ‘report outcomes’ that shape policy in their own industry and government legislation. They lobby a centre of government that is hardly a teetotal utopia for favourable findings and special dispensations (viz-a-viz the tobacco industry’s helping hand in the formula one fuck-up recently and the regular budget rise in cigarette duty but not on pipe tobacco and cigars) and manipulate adverse findings made by reputable health practitioners (who really are just trying to help out with the help of the nation in most cases) by paying other well known scientists to contest the evidence, and so muddy the water, for a fee; it’s called 'marketing'. You only have to read Mintel's report on Alcopops to understand where they're coming from............its so full of "market-speak" it should carry a government spin-doctor's health warning, but it never once questions the social ideology of such beverages; they weren't employed to do that. Indeed, ten of thirty-one - or 33% if you prefer - of Mintel’s food and drink clients (that’s the folks who pay the bills) are alcohol producers and retailers; hardly going to get unbiased reports into alcohol and its effects on society from that branch of the “research” industry methinks.
City centres, as opposed to village centres, attract more people, and so attract more businesses selling their wares, and the alcohol trade is just one of the many. Just like the clubs that were fully active when the “E” craze first started, who cut off the water in the toilets then upped the price of bottled water at the bar by ten times the original price (even took the plastic bottles of water that club-goers brought with them 'cos the bouncers said they were a dangerous weapon) the drinks industry will use any and all offers, bribes, favourable reports and attractions to get their wares sold; as long as they print, "Please Drink Sensibly" on their bottles they're rid of the problems that follow. It’s not a charity, it’s a business and there’s more competition on the high streets of our cities so the offers and "specials" become inflated, magnified and hyped.
In villages with one or two pubs the problem only arises when adverse numbers of young people gather (I’ll go into the ethnological and behavioural reasons for this if you like, but I figure I’ve almost exhausted your patience as it is). One of the cases of drink-fuelled violence in a small county town that comes to mind from recent history was in Towcester, and it only gained its troubled time after the city of Milton Keynes was built. The expansion of Northampton into Weston Favell and Stony Stratford into Galley Hill, and a subsequent increase in the population of that area by around seven-fold, together with the welding of once small villages into satellite dumping grounds for East-End of London problem families was about three-parts completed when “country-town violence” made itself felt in that town. Trace back Northampton’s history and read about what it was and what it is now; it’s not a pretty story.
What increases and kick-starts (forgive the pun) alcohol-fuelled violence, alcohol-fuelled depravity and alcohol-fuelled vandalism is…surprise, surprise….alcohol! Whatever you do with it, ban it (prohibition worked well in the U.S of A. didn’t it) ration it (black market would never start up here, not in good old Blighty) let people buy it pretty well wherever and whenever they like (the present proposal for licensed premises, disorganised freeing up of laws being seized on by our supermarket chains as another way of creaming a fast buck…but I’m sure, like it says on the bottle, they’ll "do it responsibly") or give it away free for the first half-hour (even pay to get ‘em in) we’ll always have alcohol-related problems. What it comes down to is people; people, who most often should know better given their level of "education", people and their inability to ration sensible intake of alcohol over sensible times in sensible locations without incentives, and to behave with even a modicum of self-restraint after drinking; this is something that only comes with a level of social responsibility gained through experienced parenting, responsible attitudes displayed by conglomerates, honest, open-handed government, inspiring role models…need I go on? But that'll take time, and governments aren't in it for the long haul; government office isn't for ever, it's just for Christmas.
What you have to do is to lift the level of intelligence and responsibility in a huge section of the population who only wants to become famous. Does anyone really think it’ll be ordinary, sensible folk out taking advantage of these extended hours? Drinking at three in the morning because “the pub’s so much quieter then”? I doubt it. It’ll be those who’ve already had more than their share topping up before they go out onto the streets to turn some student of physics into a vegetable then return home to make their mothers, wives, partners or pets proud of them by vomiting on the carpet and pissing in the wardrobe because, “I thought it was a toilet cubicle, love; honest.”
And, if we did get 24/7 opening hours in some pubs, you only need one in every city to do it and it’ll be the area of attraction for all, that is until the other outlet owners say, "Fuck this for a game of soldiers, they're gettin' all the profit; let's get it on!" And, even after a whole day’s drinking there will always be a number of folk who’ll want to get those two or three extra ones down ‘em before they roll home; nothing will alter that mindset, it comes as part of the package of our hedonistic and careless society; a society that looks at the case of a car driver killing one or more people and takes the fact that the driver was drunk into account as a mitigating factor by prosecuting them for manslaughter. One thing it will do for sure though is increase the opportunity for violence to pursue a 24/7 timetable. Instead of being able to get off’f the streets before the pubs kick out, as now, we’ll be treated to pockets of violent and affray happening throughout the day, and that’ll further increase people’s reluctance to go to the city centres; and you only have to see that level of brutality once, just once, to know you never, ever want to see it again. That every victim whose head is used as a football by a group of piss-head youngsters ("Prop 'im up, Dave, let's 'ave another go"....Wham!) and is then used as a blow-up-bed-pump by the ringleader ('Ere, Dave, e's not squirmin' much now, is 'e? Jump on 'im again") is some mother’s son, some woman’s husband, some young girl’s boyfriend.
“Short on answers, Doris?” Yup, you betcha, but I know the present trend of curtailed opening hours isn’t working (as your article propounds) but, unlike you, I fully believe their extension won’t decrease the levels of drink-related crime one iota. I know, I know, we’ll have to agree to differ. It’s going to go through government whatever "the people" think, it’s got the backing of the drink’s lobby for a start and at the finish that’s the nature of what we laughingly call our “democracy”; our government listen to what we've got to say on the matter then do exactly as they'd planned all along. Maybe, in a couple of year’s time we’ll chat again, you and I, and you can say, “Doris, I told you so” and I’ll be glad I was wrong, you were right and the problem’s solved, honest, I will; but forgive me if I don’t hold my breath.
ATB
Doris
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